First trailer for ’12 Monkeys’ TV Show from Syfy

According to reports from the Television Critics Association (TCA) press tour in America IGN characters in the 12 Monkeys TV reprise by Syfy will share the same last names as some of the original film’s characters, with Aaron Stanford (X-Men 2, pictured) playing the part of Cole.

Terry Gilliam’s 1995 sci-fi classic 12 Monkeys starred Brad Pitt in a career-changing role and Bruce Willis as a convict (Cole) sent back in time to gather information about a man-made virus that wiped out most of humanity.

Writer and producer Terry Matalas said: “I think it’s a complete sort of reimagining. We were all very, very big fans of the original film and had a deep love and respect for that material. So when we talked about this, we didn’t want to just re-do what the movie does. We changed the rules in the movie. (In the movie) you can’t actually change time, and here you can. So everything from the top down changed, from Cole’s character to Dr. Railly’s character (played by Amanda Schull from Suits) to some new characters, Ramse (played by Kirk Acevedo from Fringe) and Aaron (played by Noah Bean). So the story, while it has a lot of the same themes, it’s very different.”

Matalas said it took five years to get the show off the ground but feels that audiences trained on the time travel trickery of Back to the Future and Lost will be ready for the show. Watch the trailer below and decide if you are.